Maras was one of the artists in downtown Springfield for the Springfield Art Association’s second annual Paint the Street Fest, an event that encourages artists of all ages to take a paintbrush to the pavement in front of the Old State Capitol. There were 300 6-by-6-foot boxes available for the artists to paint, with the association providing all the paints and brushes.

The rain made it difficult to paint, Maras said, so she and her fellow Pastel Society members chose not to re-create their washed-away piece. Some artists followed their lead, while others decided to finish the job.

The live music scheduled for the event was canceled because of the weather, but food vendors continued to sell their wares.

The SAA stayed as well.

“We’ve paid for the street till 10 p.m., so we’ll be here till 10 p.m.,” Erin Svendsen, the SAA’s education coordinator, said about an hour into the festival.

Kay Wright, 65, used her square to re-create a painting her husband, Rusty, did before he passed away this past year. In the painting, Rusty is riding in a car on top of the world with the words “Mother Earth, tread lightly” written around him.

“He always liked that statement,” Wright, of Pleasant Plains, said.

Her daughter, Denise Richardson, and granddaughter, Maia Eddington, assisted Wright. They also worked on a separate painting for Richardson’s bar, the Crazy Dog Saloon, in Cantrall.

“We’re going to paint a picture of a dog from Crazy Dog,” Richardson, 41, explained as the background to the square was painted blue.

In addition to the squares, the SAA had a kids’ tent where artists could create sculptures from air-dried clay. They could also paint tiles that will be sold at the association for $20, Svendsen said.

The money made from Paint the Street Fest will go toward the creation of a new ceramics lab, a glass-blowing studio and a large-format open studio for the SAA. The entire project will cost $1.7 million.

Mary Beth Burke, development coordinator for the art association, said they are at the halfway point to that goal and hope to start construction in 2016 or 2017.

The additions would make the association the “premiere community visual arts center in central Illinois,” Burke said.

Page 2 of 2 - She added that with a new ceramics lab, the SAA could double its number of students.

“Ceramics is one of our highest-demanded classes, but we can’t service people because of inadequate space,” she said.

Once all the artwork on the street has dried, it will last through two separate rainstorms, Svendsen said.

After that, there will be more blank canvases for the artists at next summer’s Paint the Street Fest.